THE HUMAN PERSON

AS AN EMBODIED
SPIRIT
Presented by: Ms. Hannah Rose B. de Leon
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the discussion, the students will be able to:

• Recognize their own limitations and possibilities;

• Evaluate own limitations and possibilities for their transcendence; and

• Distinguish the limitations and possibilities for transcendence.

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 QUOTE OF
THE DAY

“You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are

a soul. You have a body, temporarily.”
Walter Miller Jr.
A Canticle for Leibowitz

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VOCABULARY

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 embody /əmˈbädē/
“
- be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea,
quality, or feeling).

 transcendence /ˌtran(t)ˈsendəns/
- extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience.

 possibility /ˌpäsəˈbilədē/
- a chance that something might exist, happen, or be true.

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 THE NOTION OF THE SOUL

⊡ Pre-Socratic Thought
⊡ Socratic Dualism
⊡ Plato’s Dualism
⊡ Aristotle’s View on the Soul
⊡ St. Thomas Aquinas and the Nature of the Soul

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 PRE-SOCRATIC THOUGHT

Heraclitus, the father of universal change, believed in the existence of

soul as an infinite part of a human being. He believed that the soul is
associated with fire, and there is something in store for the soul the
moment it leaves the body.

The same belief of Herclitus was shared by the Pythagoreans, the

philosophers who believed that numbers are the first principle,
contending that a human being is a composite of body and soul.

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 SOCRATIC DUALISM

Socrates believed that He also advocated the Also similar to his

human nature is concept of self-mastery. concept of the soul is
determined by one’s Self-mastery implies Socrate’s notion of a
soul. According to him, mastery or reason over daimonion or a divine
knowledge paves way the sensible nature of a voice inside one’s being
for the perfection of person. This gives a that is claimed to be
the soul and enables person a sense of guiding his/her actions.
person to achieve the freedom that leads to a
highest form of degree of happiness.
happiness.

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Like Socrates, he also
believed that a person is
his/her soul. Her argued
that the soul did not come
into existence with the
body and it came to be a
prior to being joined in the
body. As the body dies, the
soul survives.
PLATO’S DUALISM
The most important
concept in understanding
Plato’s dualism is his
theory which claims that
everything that exists has a
corresponding “form” or
idea. For Plato, the soul is
able to obtain knowledge
through remembrance of
these forms.
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Plato has four arguments for
dualism and the following are:
1. Life and Death (The
Cyclical Argument)
2. Knowing is Reminiscing
(The Recollection
Argument)
3. Incorruptibility of the
Soul (The Affinity
Argument)
4. The Argument from
Opposites

LIFE AND DEATH
(The Cyclical Argument)
This is the cycle of
transmigration or
reincarnation of the soul.
When the body dies, it paves
the way for another body
which means that if life leads
to death, then death must
lead to life.
PLATO’S ARGUMENTS
KNOWING IS
REMINISCING
(The Recollection Argument)
According to Plato, since the
soul has preexisted over the
body, it becomes a witness to
everything; hence, the
process of knowledge is
recollecting on what had
always been there in the soul.
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INCORRUPTIBILITY OF
THE SOUL
(The Affinity Argument)
This argument attempts to prove that
the soul, arguing that it is capable to
know immutable and eternal realities,
must be immortal.
THE ARGUMENT FROM OPPOSITES
Plato believed that the body and soul
are not connected from each other. He
even considered the body as the tomb
of the soul, and contended that one
does not experience the true meaning of
life as he/she is stuck in the body.
 ARISTOTLE’S VIEW ON THE SOUL

For Aristotle, the soul is part of the body that animates it-meaning, the
soul is what gives life to the body. Hence, the body and soul are
inseprable.

Aristotle assumed that every soul has only one body. As the body is
corrupted, so does the soul. The soul does not survive death; hence,
Aristotle dismisses the concept of transmigration or reincarnation of
the soul.

He also claimed that the soul is not a substance, but a form that
actualizes matter into a composite being. This actualized being
becomes the substance known as the embodied soul.

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 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS AND
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL

He also believed that

St. Thomas Aquinas though the soul may Thus, the rational soul can
identified three work independently of exist without the body, but it
divisions of the soul: the the body, it still needs cannot do anything without
vegetative, the sensitive, the body to manifest its it.
and the intellectual or powers. Without the
rational soul. body, the soul is an
incomplete substance as
it cannot exercise its
natural qualities.

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VEGETATIVE SOUL
The vegetative soul is
intrinsically dependent upon
matter (food, home, etc.) to
survive.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS AND
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL
SENSITIVE SOUL
The sensitive soul is inherent
to all animals, and is used for
sensation and locomotion.
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RATIONAL OR
INTELLECTUAL SOUL
The rational or intellectual soul is
specific and exclusive only to a
human. Such soul is responsible
for thinking and reasoning.
According to Aquinas, humans
possess all three kinds of soul.
THE HUMAN MIND
The Link between the Body and the Soul

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 WHAT DO YOU THINK?

IS THE CLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL?

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 THE HUMAN MIND

The human mind is said to be the connection between the body and
the soul as it possesses potentialities and faculties which are
metaphysical in nature. The human mind is a powerful entity itself.

People still have yet to fathom the nature of the human mind, but they
have identified already the different faculties of the human mind
which could be developed and trained in order for a person to have a
meaning existence in this world.

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 IDENTIFIED FACULTIES
OF THE HUMAN MIND

MENTAL FACULTY OF
REASONING MENTAL FACULTY OF
MENTAL FACULTY OF THE WILL
PERCEPTION
MENTAL FACULTY OF
IMAGINATION MENTAL FACULTY OF
MEMORY

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 MENTAL FACULTY OF
PERCEPTION

Perception is the faculty of apprehension by the senses. This is

sometimes called one’s point of view. The mental faculty of
perception may be pertinently considered to be relative.

Example:
There are two persons looking at the same object. They may have
different ideas about the object, but both of them are right because
their ideas came from their own points of view.

It is a matter of perception.

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 MENTAL FACULTY OF
REASONING

The mental faculty of reasoning enables a person to form conclusions and render
judgements based from facts and premises. But one’s sense of reasoning is largely
dependent on the amount of knowledge he/she has gained all throughout his/her
lifetime, whether perceived by the senses or ideas gained through education or other
intellectual activities.

Being reasonable is more often than not mistaken to being logical. But in a real sense,
logic is simply a means to reason out but is not reason itself. There are times when
one’s reasons are illogical if they are anchored on fallacies, baseless assumptions, or
unproven contentions. However, logical contentions make up sound reasoning, and in
this way, reasoning itself could be a means to seek truth.

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 MENTAL FACULTY OF
IMAGINATION

Also know as the ability to visualize, this faculty refers to the forming of images in
the mind. When a person is forming an idea in his/her mind, he/she is creating an
image corresponding to such particular idea as to how it is in reality. Imagination,
when used profitably, enables a person to create various circumstances that are
beneficial to him/her.

If a person should learn to develop fully this mental faculty, he/she would cease to be
a mere daydreamer and wishful thinker. Instead, his/her creative abilities and
potentials would be strengthened and could be a powerful tool for creating a better
world for the benefit of humankind.

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 MENTAL FACULTY OF THE
WILL

The mental faculty of the will is also known as willpower. It is defined by the German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as an internally motivated action. It is the inner drive
in a person that enables him/her to do anything. If mastered, the mental faculty of the
will gives one the courage to achieve his/her goals and aspirations.

Willpower gives rise to motivation, which in turn, fuels ambition. With the mental
faculty of the will, a person can perform beyond what he/she expects himself/herself
to do. This is one of the mysteries of this faculty-an ordinary person can do
extraordinary activities the mental faculty of the will.

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 MENTAL FACULTY OF
MEMORY

Memory is one’s ability to retain, revive, recall, and recognize information. It is one of the most
amazing wonders of the human being, as there is no limit to the amount of information it can store. It is
said to be a two-way process-retaining and recalling information-which means that memory stores
information inside the mind, and pulls them back as the need arises.

There are three types of memory in the human mind: one is sensory memory, which enables a person to
recall perceptions. In this case, memory is being used by another mental faculty (imagination) in
forming images that one sees in reality.

The second type is the short-term memory which gives a person the ability to remember information
without practice for a short period of time.

The third type is the long-term memory. Somehow, the third type is the most useful of all types of
memory as this is the one that undergoes training, practice, and mastery. Success of a person is always
attributed to long-term memory.

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 ASSIGNMENT

Chose among the five (5) mental faculty which you think is the
most important faculty a person should have. Explain how the
faculty can be used in everyday life. Give experiences of people
who have used this mental faculty to its limit and share their
experience.

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 THANKS!

Any questions?

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